The Duke Football program has earned a spot in the US LBM Coaches Poll poll released on Sunday after Week 4.
The Duke Blue Devils head into their bye week with a 4-0 record and fresh off a win over William & Mary at home. The Blue Devils have to feel good about where they stand four weeks into the season, but they know that there is still a long way to go.
Duke made quick work of William & Mary, wrapping up their non-conference schedule with a big win. So far this season, they have beaten Tulane, Illinois, William & Mary and even Stanford. With three non-conference wins and a win in the ACC, things are looking up.
Following Saturday's win over William & Mary, the Blue Devils got some more good news regarding their season. They finally cracked the top 25 in the US LBM Coaches Poll for the week after their 4-0 start.
Duke makes its debut in the poll at No. 21 after weeks of receiving votes. This week, they had enough votes from the coaches and earned their spot. Below is the full poll with first-place votes in parentheses:
- Texas (45)
- Georgia (17)
- Notre Dame (3)
- Miami
- Indiana (8)
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Florida
- BYU
- Texas Tech
- LSU
- Mississippi
- Utah
- Iowa
- Oregon
- Mississippi State
- Tennessee
- Southern California
- SMU
- Houston
- Duke
- Penn State
- UCLA
- Michigan
- Missouri
As you can see, Duke is one of three Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the poll joining No. 4 Miami and No. 19 SMU. It's still very early on in the season but Duke might be on track to earn a spot in the conference title game.
They have a long ways to go before they can confidently start thinking about that, however. The meat of the Blue Devils' ACC schedule is coming up and they will be tested coming out of the bye week with two of their three games on the road.
Duke still unranked in AP Top 25
While Duke was ranked in the coaches' poll, they still aren't ranked in the AP Top 25 for this week. Despite their 4-0 start, the AP doesn't have the Blue Devils in its rankings.
Instead, Duke is still in the "receiving votes" area. They received 101 total votes which is second in that category, meaning they would be team number 27 in the rankings.
Only Wisconsin has more votes than the Blue Devils as they have 102 following their big upset win over Penn State last weekend.
The best thing for the Blue Devils to do is to keep winning. They have already admitted that the disrespect has motivated them, so maybe it's not all bad that they were unranked this week.
